On Tuesday 16 March, the EU, Norway and the UK reached agreements on the management of certain total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2021 in North Sea waters.
The Trilateral Arrangement on Jointly Managed Fish Stocks in the North Sea for 2021 (https://bit.ly/3vze086 ) sets out the TACs and quota shares covering over 636,000 tonnes of fish.
Following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the three parties have been meeting since January this year in a trilateral format to agree on the management of key shared stocks in the North Sea.
The three parties signed an agreement allowing for the joint management of the following stocks: cod, haddock, saithe, whiting, plaice and herring.
The results are as follows: – lower TACs in 2021 for saithe (-25% to 59,512 tonnes, of which 22,198 tonnes for the EU), plaice (-2.3% to 143,419 tonnes, of which 95,417 tonnes for the EU) and herring (-7.4% to 356,357 tonnes, of which 187,301 tonnes for the EU); – increases in TACs for haddock (+20% to 42,785 tonnes, of which 6,080 tonnes for the EU) and whiting (+19%, to 21,306 tonnes, of which 6,669 tonnes for the EU).
For cod in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Eastern Channel, the EU had recommended a 16.5% reduction in the TAC for 2021. Negotiations resulted in a 10% reduction to a TAC of 15,911 tonnes.
EU/Norway. The EU and Norway have also signed three bilateral agreements. Firstly, they renewed the agreement on reciprocal access for jointly managed stocks in the North Sea (https://bit.ly/3eKGXaZ ). For pelagic stocks, the EU will be able to catch its quota of ‘Norwegian Spring spawning herring’ in Norwegian waters, while in the case of blue whiting there will be reciprocal access to each other’s waters to catch up to 141,648 tonnes.
The arrangement also covers quota exchanges of major economic interest to both parties, including 10,274 tonnes of Arctic cod for the EU and 37,500 tonnes of blue whiting for Norway.
The second bilateral agreement (https://bit.ly/3bPRYWy ) concerns TACs in the Skagerrak and Kattegat for cod, haddock, whiting, plaice, prawns, herring and sprat.
Finally, the parties signed a Neighbourhood Agreement covering Swedish fisheries in Norwegian North Sea waters (https://bit.ly/3vuL6G3 ).
The agreements reached will allow the long-awaited restart of EU fishing operations in Norwegian waters, and vice versa, which had been partially interrupted since 31 December 2020. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)